NEWS & ARTICLES

A Senate subcommittee on Tuesday swiftly approved a $56.5 billion transportation spending bill, sending the legislation to the full panel.

During a brief markup, the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on transportation and housing unanimously backed a measure that would provide $56.5 billion in discretionary spending to the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other related agencies in fiscal 2017.

The figure is $2.9 billion less than the president’s budget request and $827 million less than the current level.

WASHINGTON — During a rare hearing focused exclusively on the commercial motor carrier industry, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee suggested his colleagues support establishing truck-only lanes to help boost freight capacity.

“We are going to see the doubling in the next 20 years or so of freight traffic, and then doubling again. So this is something — it’s a capacity issue that we have to face,” Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said here April 13 during a roundtable-style hearing.

With a deadline approaching this week to apply for millions in federal funding to fix the decaying Memorial Bridge, an influential group of congressional representatives on Tuesday sounded an alarm that the National Park Service risked blowing the crucial opportunity.

In a letter to Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis, members of the Virginia and D.C. congressional delegations said they were writing to “urge in the strongest possible terms” that the Park Service “complete a strong application” by the Thursday night deadline.

While driving to class, a student’s phone on the seat next to the driver dings with a text message. Out of habit, the driver reaches to answer the text. For a minute, or even just a few seconds, the driver’s eyes are on the phone instead of the road. This behavior — called distracted driving — is a dangerous, nationwide problem.